Elon trustees decide Chick-fil-A can stay

By Steve Huffman / Times-News

Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 06:01 PM.

ELON – Members of the Elon University board of trustees have decided that Chick-fil-A can remain on campus.

The decision was announced Thursday in a lengthy email sent to students, faculty and staff. The restaurant chain has been at the center of controversy since last summer when Dan Cathy, the company’s chief operating officer, made public statements supporting the traditional family and speaking against same-sex marriage.

Protests — both in opposition to and in support of the chain — followed at numerous locations. At Elon, members of the student government association voted to kick Chick-fil-A off campus. The president of the student association vetoed the vote. SGA members tried to overturn the veto, but didn’t have the votes.

At Elon, opponents of the company criticized its president, Truett Cathy, for his opposition to gay marriage and contributions through Winshape, its charitable wing, to organizations that some describe as anti-gay.

According to Thursday’s email, three factors went into making the decision to permit the restaurant to remain at Elon. They include:

— Elon’s food service contract is with Aramark (not Chick-fil-A) and staff members serving Chick-fil-A food at Elon are Aramark employees protected by a non-discrimination policy similar to Elon’s.

ELON – Members of the Elon University board of trustees have decided that Chick-fil-A can remain on campus.

The decision was announced Thursday in a lengthy email sent to students, faculty and staff. The restaurant chain has been at the center of controversy since last summer when Dan Cathy, the company’s chief operating officer, made public statements supporting the traditional family and speaking against same-sex marriage.

Protests — both in opposition to and in support of the chain — followed at numerous locations. At Elon, members of the student government association voted to kick Chick-fil-A off campus. The president of the student association vetoed the vote. SGA members tried to overturn the veto, but didn’t have the votes.

At Elon, opponents of the company criticized its president, Truett Cathy, for his opposition to gay marriage and contributions through Winshape, its charitable wing, to organizations that some describe as anti-gay.

According to Thursday’s email, three factors went into making the decision to permit the restaurant to remain at Elon. They include:

— Elon’s food service contract is with Aramark (not Chick-fil-A) and staff members serving Chick-fil-A food at Elon are Aramark employees protected by a non-discrimination policy similar to Elon’s.

“There has been no evidence of discrimination or complaints about service at Chick-fil-A on our campus,” the board email reads.

— Board members said they’re reluctant to put the university in a position of monitoring or making value judgments about the lawful philanthropic giving of vendors or related organizations.

“Removing Chick-fil-A solely on the basis of the owners’ stated views or their lawful philanthropic choices would stand in opposition to Elon’s mission statement, which encourages freedom of thought and liberty of conscience,” the email reads.

— Circumstances regarding Chick-fil-A have changed since last summer.

“Chick-fil-A, its owners and the Winshape Foundation have modified previous positions and stepped away from taking political stands on gay rights issues,” the email continues.

According to the board, considerable work went into making the decision outlined in Thursday’s email. The university appointed a 15-member Vendor Policy Study Committee that included students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni.

“Given our commitment to student engagement and our respect for human differences, we saw great value in taking time to study the issues, dig deeper into the facts, understand differing points of view and weigh the evidence and opinions expressed by hundreds of stakeholders,” the email reads.

It stated the board’s conviction to uphold Elon’s non-discrimination policy and pointed out the university offers same-sex partner benefits to employees.

“We applaud efforts to confront discrimination whenever it is present on the Elon campus,” it reads.

The university has recently hired a full-time staff position to support the interest and needs of the LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Ally) community, the email states. Dan Anderson, a spokesman for the university, said that while the position has been filled, the employee doesn’t start work until summer. Attempts were unsuccessful Thursday to reach members of Elon’s LGBTQIA community.

According to the email, Chick-fil-A’s location on campus will be moved by early fall to the first floor of McEwen Dining Hall. That’s as a result of previously announced plans to remodel Moseley Center, which will no longer include food service facilities.

“The board believes Elon has benefitted from carefully considering these complicated and sometimes deeply personal issues,” the email concludes. “Our community has resisted calls to make a quick and unilateral decision, studying the issues thoroughly, listening carefully to all opinions and insisting that every member of the community be treated with respect.”

Elon University President Leo Lambert and SGA Executive President Welsford Bishopric issued a statement in response to the board’s email.

“Today’s communication from the Board of Trustees calls upon our community to further commit ourselves to building a campus climate of respectful and meaningful civic dialogue,” it begins.

Lambert and Bishopric call for Elon’s Council on Civic Engagement to work on a plan to develop civic education initiatives for the 2013-2014 school year. The goal, the pair said, will be to enhance Elon’s intellectual climate and better prepare the university for formative conversations.

“We will always have differences,” Lambert and Bishopric wrote. “When we engage those differences constructively, societal progress is advanced.”